Who is Angela Lansbury? All You Need To Know About American Actress

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Key Facts About Angela Lansbury

She was a singer and actress of Irish, British, and American roots.
She was born on October 16, 1925, and lived until October 11, 2022.
She had three siblings: Bruce, Isolde, and Edgar Lansbury.
She was born to Monya Macgill and Edgar Lansbury.
Angie Lansbury identified as a Christian.
She had two kids, Deidre Angela Shaw and Anthony Pullen Shaw.
Angela Brigid Lansbury was her full name.
She was worth 70 million dollars.

Who is Angela Lansbury?

Angela Lansbury was a soprano and actress of Irish, British, and American descent. During her eight-decade career, she appeared in a wide range of film, stage, and screen roles. Though she lived primarily in the United States, she was awarded numerous accolades and recognition on a global scale for her work. Angela Brigid Lansbury is her full name. Her birthday was October 16, 1925, and she passed away on October 11, 2022.

Angela Lansbury was the daughter of Moyna Macgill and Edgar Lansbury. She was born in Central London to an upper-middle-class family. Her mother was an actress, while her father was a politician. In 1940, she moved to the United States to pursue acting training in New York City, where she would remain safe from the Blitz.

Angela Lansbury Early Life

Angela Lansbury was born on October 16, 1925, into a family that belonged to the upper middle class. Her parents are Monya Macgill and Edgar Lansbury. Bruce Lansbury, Isolde Lansbury, and Edgar Lansbury are her siblings’ names.

Angela Lansbury Education

Angela Lansbury completed her secondary education at South Hampstead High School.

Angela Lansbury Career

In the wake of her breakthrough in Gaslight and The Picture of Dorian Gray, MGM cast Angela Lansbury in a total of eleven additional films before her contract with the studio terminated in 1952. Her biographers Rob Edelman and Audrey E. Kupferberg thought that most of these films were “mediocre,” doing little to increase her image; therefore, MGM kept her among their B-list stars instead of their similarly-aged women. Cukor agreed with this assessment, saying MGM “consistently miscast” Angela Lansbury. After being consistently typecast as a senile, villainous older woman, she was disillusioned with her career at MGM. Following a drop in box office receipts after 1948, the company reduced film production expenses and laid off workers.

Angela Lansbury played her first American character, Em, a saloon singer, in the Oscar-winning Wild West musical The Harvey Girls, which was released in 1946. She played a rude maidservant in the 1951 film “Kind Lady,” and a French adventurer in the 1957 film “Mutiny” (1952). In addition to Tenth Avenue Angel (1948), she had roles in films including The Hoodlum Saint (1946), If Winter Comes (1947), The Three Musketeers (1948), Till the Clouds Roll By (1947), State of the Union (1948), and The Red Danube (1948). Since MGM had no use for her, they rented her to United Artists for The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) and subsequently to Paramount for Samson and Delilah (1950).

In Jerry Herman’s 1966 musical adaptation of the 1955 novel Auntie Mame, Angela Lansbury made her debut as Mame Dennis. Although Rosalind Russell played Mame in the 1958 non-musical film adaptation, she was the director’s initial choice for the role and ultimately turned it down. Angela Lansbury desperately wanted the job because she believed it would be a game-changer for her career. It was a shock to theatre critics, who had expected a more well-known actress to get the job instead of Angela Lansbury, who played her first leading role at 41.

In March of 1979, Harold Prince staged Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim, with Angela Lansbury in the role of Nellie Lovett. She co-starred alongside Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd in the play at the Uris Theatre. Sweeney Todd is a murdering barber in 19th-century London. The musical was met with mixed reviews, although it did earn Angela Lansbury her fourth Tony Award and the Ruby Award for Broadway Performer of the Year from After Dark magazine. She said she was drawn to Sondheim’s involvement because of “the wonderful wit and intellect of his lyrics,” which ultimately led her to accept the role. She stayed in the role for fourteen months before being replaced by Dorothy Loudon.

In 1983, Angela Lansbury starred in two prominent TV roles, one in a sitcom and one in a detective series. Since she couldn’t work in both fields, her representatives urged Angela Lansbury to choose the former, but she went with the latter instead. Series protagonist Jessica Fletcher was a retired educator living in the made-up Maine hamlet of Cabot Cove. Angela Lansbury portrayed Fletcher as “an American Miss Marple,” who travelled the world writing mystery novels and solving crimes she encountered along the way. Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson, and William Link, who had success with Columbo, came up with the idea for the series. Jean Stapleton was first offered the part of Fletcher, but she declined.

In the years following Murder, She Wrote, Angela Lansbury became increasingly obsessed with her husband’s declining health. She ultimately backed out of taking the leading role in the 2001 Kander and Ebb musical. Peter passed away in the couple’s Brentwood home from heart failure in January 2003. At this point, Angela Lansbury decided she would no longer accept major acting parts, instead opting to make occasional cameo appearances.

Angela Lansbury Parents

Angela Lansbury is the daughter of Monya Macgill and Edgar Lansbury.

Angela Lansbury Siblings

Angela Lansbury’s siblings were Bruce Lansbury, Isolde Lansbury, and Edgar Lansbury.

Angela Lansbury Ethnicity

Angela Lansbury has a lineage that was both Irish and British.

Angela Lansbury Religion

Angela Lansbury believed in Jesus Christ.

Angela Lansbury Husband

Legendary actress Angela Lansbury had two marriages over her impressive career. She kept her personal life inside the bounds of her nuptials to Richard Cromwell and Peter Shaw.